🚀 Junk Store Pro v3.2.0.0: Fixes Steam and QAM UI bugs.
Get it from the Portal →
Already on Pro? Update directly in the app.
DocumentationGlossary

Glossary

On this page

Words that come up in Junk Store and in this documentation, in plain language.

You do not need to read this. It is here so that if you meet a word you do not know, particularly if you have wandered into the developer documentation, there is somewhere to look it up.

Terms are grouped by where you are likely to meet them rather than alphabetically, since related words are easier to understand together.

Things you see in Junk Store

Extension
The part of Junk Store that knows about one place your games come from. Epic, GOG, Amazon and Itch are extensions, and so is a folder of DOS games you set up yourself. Each one appears as its own tab. If you have ever installed a browser add-on, the idea is the same: the main program stays the same, and extensions teach it about new things.
Store
Usually the same thing as an extension, seen from the outside. The extension is the machinery; the store is what you see. The documentation uses “store” when it means the tab you click and “extension” when it means the files behind it.
Tab
The row of names along the top of Junk Store. One per extension, plus the Generator and the download queue. Those last two are extensions as well, built on the same machinery as the rest.
The Generator
The tab where extensions are created and configured. It holds the wizard for making a new extension, the list of extensions you have installed, and the editors behind them. Most people use it to download official extensions and nothing else.
Wizard
The guided set of questions in the Generator that builds a working extension from your answers. Aimed at simple cases, such as an emulator and a folder of games. No files, no scripts.
Preset
A ready-made extension you can download rather than build. The presets on the server are the official Junk Store ones, such as Epic and GOG. An extension someone else wrote is not a preset and arrives as a file instead.
Settings and configuration
The options behind the cog menu on a tab. Most are hidden until you raise the visibility level from Basic to Advanced, Expert or All, because most people never need them.
Side menu
The panel that slides in when you press SELECT, holding the things that are not specific to the game you are looking at.

Games and how they run

Launcher
The thing that actually starts a game. Different games need to be started differently: a Windows game needs Proton, a DOS game needs DOSBox, a console game needs an emulator. The launcher is whichever of those applies.
Platform
Junk Store’s word for which launcher a game uses. Setting a game’s platform to Proton means “start this with Proton”. The shipped ones include Proton, Linux, Dosbox, RetroArch, ScummVM, Dolphin, Ryujinx and Yuzu.
Proton
Valve’s software for running Windows games on Linux. The Steam Deck runs Linux, so nearly every Windows game you play on it is running through Proton. It is built on Wine, and you can mostly treat the two names as the same thing.
Wine
The long-standing open source project for running Windows programs on Linux. Proton is a version of Wine that Valve maintains for games.
Prefix, sometimes Wine prefix
A private folder that pretends to be a Windows installation, holding the fake C: drive, the registry and the settings for one game. Each game normally gets its own, which is why one game’s Windows quirks do not affect another. If a Windows game starts misbehaving, deleting its prefix is a common fix, though it also loses anything stored inside it.
ROM
A copy of a game from a cartridge or disc, as a file on disk. Emulators run these. Junk Store never supplies them; you point it at ones you already have.
Emulator
A program that imitates older hardware so its games can run. RetroArch, Dolphin and ScummVM are emulators.
DOSBox
An emulator for MS-DOS, which is how DOS-era PC games are played today. DOSBox-X and DOSBox Staging are alternative versions of it, with more features.
Shortcut
An entry in your Steam library. Junk Store adds one per installed game, so games it manages appear in your library and can be launched from there like anything else.

The Steam Deck itself

Game Mode
The controller-driven interface the Deck starts in. Junk Store runs inside it.
Desktop Mode
The ordinary Linux desktop, reached from the power menu. Some operations are easier there because you have a keyboard, a mouse and a terminal.
Terminal, or command line
A window where you type commands rather than clicking. A few Junk Store operations are deliberately only available this way, importing an extension being the main one, because it makes them slow enough to think about first.
SSH
A way of connecting to another machine over the network to run commands on it. Used for putting games on a server rather than the Deck itself, and for reaching your Deck from a computer.
Flatpak
A way of packaging Linux applications so they run anywhere, bundling what they need. Some emulators are installed as flatpaks.

Words from the developer documentation

You will only meet these if you have opened the extension documentation. They are here so it is readable, not because you need them.

Script
A text file of commands that a computer runs in order. Junk Store extensions are built from scripts, which is why they can be read and changed without any development tools.
Shell, and shell script
The language those commands are written in. The same language you would type in a terminal.
store.sh
The main script of an extension, the entry point everything else goes through.
static.json
The file describing what an extension puts on screen: its tab, and where it is grouped.
Scriptlet
A small script handling one platform’s launch, one per platform in the launchers/ folder. Editing a scriptlet changes how games on that platform start.
Action
One operation an extension can perform, such as installing a game, launching it, or listing what is available. Buttons in the interface trigger actions.
ActionSet
A named group of actions belonging together, such as the set behind one screen or one wizard. Actions are addressed by set and name rather than by name alone, so two parts of an extension can each have their own “install” without colliding. When the interface opens something it names the set it is working in, and every action it then offers is looked up inside that set.
Override
A small file of your own that changes how one action behaves, without touching the original extension. Your change survives updates because the extension is left alone.
Generate, or regenerate
Junk Store stores an extension’s definition in a database and writes the actual scripts out from it. Regenerating is that writing-out step. Changing a setting or a script does not take effect until you regenerate, which is the single most common reason a change appears to do nothing.
Fork
A variant of a runtime that behaves differently enough to need its own configuration, such as DOSBox-X alongside DOSBox.
Shortname
The identifier an extension uses for one game, its key in the database.
Commandmap
The editor in the Generator listing an extension’s actions and how each is run.
Database
A file storing structured information. Junk Store keeps its extension definitions, your games and their settings in several of these.
JSON
A text format for structured data, used for configuration files and for what scripts print back to Junk Store. Readable, if fussy about punctuation.
CLI
Command Line Interface. A program you drive by typing rather than clicking.